The newspaper announced last week that it was cutting 167 jobs, including a quarter of its newsroom positions. NJ.com is the online hub of the Star-Ledger and other Advance Publications holdings in New Jersey.

“If they’re not writing headlines that are getting our attention, they’re not selling ads — and they die,” Hermann said during a media ethics and law classroom discussion “a few weeks ago,” according to NJ.com. “And the Ledger almost died in June, right?”

When a student remarked that the paper could still fold, Hermann reportedly replied, “That would be great.”

“I’m going to do all I can to not give them a headline to keep them alive,” she told the class, according to NJ.com.

The website said it obtained a recording of Hermann’s talk from a student.

“Her comments were in response to a broad array of student questions on a number of different subjects and were reflective of her own personal experiences,” Rutgers said in a statement to NJ.com. “She had no knowledge of the impending reorganization of the Star-Ledger and drastic changes that the newspaper would announce several weeks later, in April.”